Morality and Wisdom; B. Buckles

The great inventor Thomas Edison said that "we don't know one-millionth of one percent about anything. " I would like to add that what we do know, we will soon forget. Years from now, most of us will not remem ber the marginal cost curves, the conjuga tions of Spanish verbs, the difference be tween mitosis and meiosis, or even the political leanings of Charles Dickens. I dare say few of us can remember these things today. What we will always remember and what will be the single most important guiding principle behind each of our lives is something that our classroom instruction This article is adapted from commencement remarks given by Mr. Buckles at Washington University in St. Louis in 1993. A summa cum laude graduate in economics, he will attend law school in the fall of 1994. has not addressed: morality. Without mor als, our knowledge can never become wis dom. King Solomon, who was hailed as the wisest leader ever to govern any nation, said "be wise and give serious thought to the way you live." Solomon recognized the impor tance of morals. The young Martin Luther King, Jr., did as well. When he was a graduating senior at Morehouse College, he wrote, "the most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals. " But over the past four years, my classmates and I have sat together patiently through countless lectures aimed at con vincing us that all truth is relative and that moral absolutes do not exist.

In the meantime, we've seen our inner cities become war zones, chemicals and pornography infect the minds of our nation's youth, teenage children have babies, pris ons overflow, and drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors placed at schoolhouse doors. It seems that rather than standing for something, America has fallen for any thing. My generation must change all of this. We can begin today by recognizing the obvious: the statement "there are no absolutes" is itself an absolute. When our professors appealed to Einstein's groundbreaking the ory of relativity for ethical purposes, they stretched it beyond its legitimate scientific application. They ignored Einstein's own personal warning that his theory of relativity does not apply to ethics. Not only must we understand the limita tions of our knowledge, but we must also 205 206 THE FREEMAN • APRIL 1994 Brian Buckles, delivering his commencement address at Washington University, 1993.

consciously strive to become examples of morality for our nation. As Thomas Jeffer son put it, "In matters of style, swim with the current; [but] in matters of principle, stand like a rock. " And what better princi ples to pattern ourselves after than those of George Washington whose name this uni versity bears? When Washington University was inau gurated on April 23, 1857, the first Chancel lor, Reverend William Greenleaf Eliot, ex plained in his speech that the name Washington "was admirably adapted to the plan proposed, namely, ... to educate the rising generations in that love of country. . . and in that faithfulness to God and Truth which made [George] Washington great." Clearly, Chancellor Eliot and the other founders of this university recognized the need for a moral component in higher edu cation. They thought that by naming this university for George Washington, they would provide an outstanding example of morality for future students.

On this occasion, then, we are justified in turning to George Washington as our moral mentor. The historian Cyrus R. Edrponds, who lived during Washington's day, once said "the elements of [Washington's] great ness are chiefly to be discovered in the moral features of his character." The Duke of Wellington, who was a British statesman, general, and enemy of Washington in the Revolutionary War, said that Washington had "the purest and noblest character of modern time-possibly of all time." Like all great leaders, George Washington was not representative of the world's population. In his Farewell Address, Washington ex plained the basis of his morality. He said, "Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to hope that national morality can prevail in the exclusion of religious principles." As we enter the wilderness ahead, never forget that without morality, true wisdom is unattainable. The facts we have learned at this place will only fade with time, but morals will guide us through life. D THEFREEMAN IDEASON LIBERTY MONEY AND INFLATION by Lawrence M. Parks I·n his speech to the Economic Club of New York last year, Federal Reserve Chair man Alan Greenspan used the word' 'infla tion" no less than 50 times. In the Chair man's speeches and in Congressional testimony, he has said of inflation: It is going away. It is not coming back. It is not a problem. It is diminished. It is nonrecurring.